In Praise of St. John’s College

Probably most pomocon readers know about this special place, but it’s good to be reminded. Now if I started to praise, and talk about my time at, St. John’s, the post would be a very long one indeed.

But today there’s some praise from Roger Kimball I can send you to, and as it it was linked on Instapundit, let’s hope it gives St. John’s an “Instalanche” of interest. Alas, at the Santa Fe campus (there’s another at Annapolis), enrollment has been down of late.

In describing the college’s seminars, Kimball explains why 2 is the magic number:

A typical St. Johns seminar consists of about 20 students and two tutors (two in order to reinforce the non-professorial character of the exchange). Class begins with one of the tutors propounding a question about the reading.

For another side of the college, check out Slowly Percolating Forms , where an old Johnnie friend of mine become philosophy prof David O’ Hara praises the college’s no grades policy. (Sure, for transcript purposes, they exist, and you can get them from the registrar if you ask, even though no-one encourages you to do so.)

This is the Santa Fe campus I went to. Not shown are the wonderful conversations you’d typically have when sitting on benches like this.

One of my most cherished places . . . I especially love the library there, where you can feel the silent charge of engaged reading and philosophic thought all around you.